Ernie Els Quotes on Golf (13 Quotes)

Tiger is not playing as well as he did then. Guys like Vijay, Phil (Mickelson), Davis (Love) and me have elevated a little bit, and the gap has closed a bit. I think guys get to the first tee and really believe they can win with Tiger in the field. Golf will humble the best of them and that's where we are.

That was exciting stuff. They can show that on The Golf Channel every day instead of all that other stuff they show.

I don't take too many long breaks through the season. My next long break will probably be somewhere in June or July when I have two weeks off. For the next four or five months, it's a lot of golf with a week off here and there and a lot of traveling. So I needed to do that just to recharge.

When you have a golf course that's so pristine, you just want to play well. Jack Nicklaus has also got something to do with that. Everybody wants to win this golf tournament.

It's got a lot of variety, and you can play the golf course lots of different ways. Basically, the best player that's on form is going to win the tournament if you're a longer hitter, shorter hitter.

I've played with him quite a few times the last couple of years. It seems like he's gone up a level this year. It seems like he's really comfortable with his swing and his game. It seems like he's there every week. He's almost a golfing machine, so to speak. He never gets tired of the game. I think he's definitely going to be very tough to beat this weekend.

Obviously my game wasn't too good at Augusta, I had a couple of technical faults, the posture wasn't too good. It's a bit unfortunate because I was playing a lot of good golf, but when I got sick (flu) before The Masters, that was bad timing and I wasn't quite myself.

It was a nice round of golf and I needed this. (The knee is) not going to be 100 percent for another six months. I'm just thankful to be walking.

You can't really look at the rest of the field. You have to play the golf course and play your score and try and put something decent on the scoreboard and hope that it is good enough.

Chad's going to be very tough to beat. It seems like he's gone up a level this year. He's almost a golfing machine, so to speak. He's a very good ball-striker and it seems like he's putting well.

He just makes this place better every year. The golf course keeps improving, the quality of the way they present the golf course gets better all the time, and I think this year is no different. It's just great playing on a golf course like this. He runs a great show.

The ending is happy, as Els' endings tend to be. The last six or seven years now, ... we have become best friends. At first Dirk got into the transport business, like my dad. He completely modernized Dad's operation. Dirk's got a great mind. He's a guy who wants to go forward in life. But I could tell he didn't really love the transport business. Come with me,' I said, and he did. Now we're together, working in golf course design, and having so much fun. We're getting ready to do something with Jack Nicklaus. Dirk has a gift for it, a real talent. He's great.

It's a great test. I think to have different winners like that shows you how good the golf course is.